Distinguished Visiting Fellowships - The Application Process

Applying for a Visiting Fellowship:

SICSA can award both short (from one week) and long distinguished visiting fellowships (up to 3 months) per annum. Proposer(s) should be researchers associated with SICSA. If you are interested in hosting a visitor through this scheme, please submit a case or support which explains the purpose of the visit and the benefits to the Scottish research community. Applications should be submitted to the SICSA Executive Team by emailing admin@sicsa.ac.uk and will subsequently be reviewed by the SGA Board. Applications may be submitted at any time but will only be considered in the months after the closing dates as detailed below.

The closing dates annually are:

31 October

28 February

30 April

30 June

How to create a case for support

Your case should explicitly address the requirements and questions below as well as describing briefly the research area in which the visitor works. You must explain why the visitor should be considered to be a "distinguished" visitor. For a senior visitor, the distinction may relate to reputation and a recognised body of work. For a more junior visitor, we would expect to see evidence of an accelerating career trajectory and exceptional achievements for their career stage.

The requirements for visiting fellowships are as follows: 1. All visitors must present at least one seminar which is open to all members of the SICSA community.

2. All visitors must visit at least two SICSA institutions during their stay. 3. For visits of 2 weeks or more, visitors will be expected to present a master‐class on their work aimed at the SICSA postgraduate community. Normally, this should consist of at least 3 presentations pitched at the level of an interested PhD student. This could be combined with a seminar presentation, or it could form part of a SICSA Workshop (which the postgraduate community can attend and can reasonably be expected to be able to benefit from) or a SICSA Summer School. It would be helpful if any such activities (if split between sites) could take into account the geographical dispersion of SICSA institutions.

You are advised to read the information on the following pages prior to writing your proposal:

The Case for Support should address:

1. Which research themes does the visit relate to? [It is desirable but not essential that the visit is related to one or more of the SICSA themes]

2. How the visit will benefit researchers at the institution being visited (including proposed details such as topic, date, and venue of any planned talks/seminars/masterclass, where applicable).

3. What other research groups in Scotland might benefit from the visit?

4. How the visitor will interact with SICSA researchers outside of the host institution (including proposed details such as topic, date, and venue of any planned talks/seminars/masterclass, where applicable).

5. What funding is being requested from SICSA? What other sources are contributing to funding for the visit?

6. Demonstrate the value for money of the visit. i) If you are requesting the maximum amount available for the visit, please ensure that you clearly demonstrate the value for the SICSA community, and not only for the host institution. ii) If the visit is largely supported from other sources the SICSA funds are acting as a top-up funding, simply inviting other SICSA partners to a seminar would be seen as acceptable interaction.

7. Give details of proposed visit dates, even if these are still to be confirmed. Please note that SICSA will usually only consider applications where the visit is scheduled to take place a minimum of three months after the call closing date. For example if you submit an application in the 28 February round, your proposed visit should be scheduled for no earlier than 1 June. Exceptional circumstances may be considered, however you are advised to contact admin@sicsa.ac.uk in advance.